Empirical research on how social capital influence inter-organizational information systems value co-creation in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Previous literature revealed that the lack of knowledge resources and the existence of an assimilation gap may be responsible for the high failure rate in the Inter-Organizational Information Systems (IOS) post-adoption stage of value co-creation. Drawing on social capital theory and knowledge-based theory, this paper aims to explore how structural (social interaction), relational (trust), and cognitive (shared IOS vision) capital influences knowledge acquisition among key partners and further improves IOS assimilation and value co-creation. The hypotheses, proposed in this work, were tested by partial least squares (PLS) analysis of 150 sets of survey data conducted in Chinese companies. The obtained results suggest that all three aspects of social capital have an indirect, yet significant influence on IOS assimilation and IOS value co-creation. This study argues that, knowledge acquisition plays a fully mediating role in structural capital and relational capital effect on IOS assimilation and IOS value co-creation. From the same stance, it adds that knowledge acquisition has a partial mediation effect on the cognitive capital-IOS assimilation link and cognitive capital-IOS value co-creation link. Moreover, the work at hand presumes that, if implemented effectively, IOS assimilation sets fourth IOS value co-creation.